Our tiny bed and breakfast has all kinds of guests from all walks of life and all age groups. The best traveling guests can not be anticipated ahead of time, unless of course they are the guests that should have been recommended to another more commodious (read “stuffy resort”) place in the beginning.

Here at the Rainforest Inn we are urban pioneers of a sort. We have gotten used to going with plan B from the first days of our repairs of a hurricane ravaged family estate. Before we opened our bed and breakfast we didn’t have electricity or running water. Now that calls for a lot of flexibility. I won’t say we didn’t want to kill each other once in a while, then that same evening we would have a candle light dinner on the roof of one of the unfinished buildings on the property. Don’t think for a minute that we didn’t sometimes say W.T.H. did we get ourselves into, but that’s another whole blog.

Nick and Ena’s hiking disaster happened after they made it to a secret waterfall deep in the El Yunque Rainforest on the Mameyes river that we had talked about as a potential hiking destination. This is a spot reserved for only the adventurous and not easy to find. It’s off a trail that is not one of the paved easy trails that everyone else takes. It’s located past the end of a steep muddy trail up a ways deeper in the rainforest and even more secluded.

Mameyes River Waterfall Deep in the El Yunque Rainforest

In the photo: Behind the large rock in the center of the pool in front of the waterfall is deeper water where you can swim in and out under the full force of the falls. This secret waterfall is one of the nicest in El Yunque tropical rainforest. As an aside, an important aside, please don’t send me an email asking for directions to this waterfall. It’s not that we don’t want people going there (or maybe that’s part of it because it is a really unspoiled location) but it’s the danger of hiking there that must be made very clear first. We also talk with our guests at breakfast about other easier hikes and about what you can do to avoid getting lost and what you should do once you know you’re lost, then they make their decision on which hikes are for them.

Because this is not the first time I’ve been involved in rescue process of someone  lost in the rainforest  I’ve learned some things, many of which are counter-intuitive and surprising. There are great differences between our El Yunque rainforest of Puerto Rico and the northern deciduous forest where most of our visitors have gotten their hiking experience.

Ena enjoying a swim below the secret waterfall

The rainforest is a “jungle”. It’s very dense and everywhere confusing green growth blocks your view. I guess most people realize this as it’s what jungle means. Once a hiker goes off the trail he won’t be able to see far enough to find the trail again and it will be very difficult to make your way through the dense growth and even more difficult to plan your route as cliffs and other obstacles won’t be visible until you’re right on top of them.

The usual boy scout rules for what to do when you’re lost don’t apply here. Don’t stay where you are (unless you’re injured and still on the trail — if you’re injured and lost then you’re really screwed which I will explain soon too).

Please understand two important differences about the process of searching for lost hikers in the El Yunque rainforest of Puerto Rico and how it would be done in a vast northern forest like the Appalachians or the Sierra Nevada.

1. Puerto Rico is a small island. It is only thirty miles by one hundred miles. You could walk from one side to the other (from the Caribbean to the Atlantic) in less than two days.

2. We don’t have search planes (or at least we don’t use them in the rescue process) and we certainly don’t have helicopters with advanced infrared devices that will find you in the jungle (that would be nice but it is only happens in the movies).

Photo taken by Nick from his perch on a cliff before spending the night with Ena in the jungle

When someone is lost in the rainforest we find out because the hikers told us or told someone else where they were going that day and they haven’t returned by the next morning. For our guests we always strongly suggest they give us an itinerary of the hikes they plan to do and when. The first step after that  is to look and see if their car is parked at the trail head where they said they were going. Then we hike down the trail to see if we find them down there still because they may be injured. This time I was in San Juan working so my nephew Jimmy volunteered to hike down the trail. In the worse case we look for evidence that there was a flash flood in the nearby swimming areas. We also take a very loud air horn which can be heard like from my bed and breakfast to the peak of El Yunque and back. But everytime I’ve done this first step I’ve never found anyone and luckily never found evidence of someone being injured.

Nick and Ena with DNR ranger Louis Martinez

The next step is to report the missing hikers to the El Yunque security patrol officers (or often done as part of the first step). In this case we called Jose Ayala the law enforcement patrol captain of the U.S. forest service enforcement and investigative branch. They have arrangements with the local Department of Natural Resources and the Rio Grande rescue volunteers and they will organize and mobilize the vast effort to find someone who is lost. It is important to realize that this next step is costly and will likely involve many days of fruitless searching because as I explained earlier the rainforest is dense and visibility is poor so our searchers will practically have to step on you before they find you. This is why if you get lost in the rainforest and then get injured you are in such deep trouble. It will likely be several days or more before you are found. So please if you find yourself lost and you don’t have a map, or a compass, or a GPS or a cell phone then avoid panic. Realize that all is not lost. It will be fairly straight forward to walk out of there. If you have no idea which direction to walk then go down hill. Follow a stream. Be careful with the slippery rocks and go around impassible brush while you walk beside the stream following it down hill. Eventually that stream will hit the ocean and well before that you will encounter a road and civilization. Puerto Rico is a small densely populated island and there are houses everywhere.

Ena, Laurie, Bill & Nick back at the Rainforest Inn

Our guests Nick and Ena got lost when it started raining on their way out. In their hurry to get out of the rain and because of poor visibility they got off the trail. They knew that they could find their way out and didn’t give up even when the straight line route (you can catch glimpses of the sun or go by elevation changes to be sure you’re not walking in circles) ended at a cliff and several patches of nearly impassible brush. As darkness was descending upon them they realized they were spending the night in the rainforest. They had drinking water (never hike anywhere without enough drinking water) and it doesn’t get so cold at night here but you will spend an uncomfortable hungry night. They spent the night, watched the sunset and the darkness close in while listening to the raucous jungle sounds. Ena discovered some insect life she would have rather not have known so intimately while she tried to sleep.

The following morning Nick spotted a coke can up the hill and later a discarded tire (they were happy to see the litter of civilization) and walked up past that to find the road.  We hadn’t yet mobilized the search and rescue crew and everyone went back to the Rainforest Inn. Ena mentioned they were disappointed that they would miss the ginger pancakes breakfast. We were very happy to see them when they returned at around noon or so and made them their ginger pancakes for lunch. They are now looking forward to their next visit to Puerto Rico and some more hikes, possibly shorter hikes.

Nick and Ena are the perfect example of your fearless and romantic travelers who learned first hand that life is what it is and so is traveling!

Puerto Rico Style Iced Coffee Frappe

Cher said that besides lounging in the new suite and going to the beach with her mom her other favorite activity was going shopping with her and stopping at Starbucks for a frappuccino. Cher decided that she wanted to make one here so she could combine her two favorite things, enjoying a frappuccino and lounging on the back porch with the jungle view. So the first thing she tried is brewing some fine Puerto Rican coffee, adding ice, and mixing it in the blender. It turned out nasty tasting so Cher asked Laurie to help come up with something that tasted like Starbuck’s secret formula. The first thing Laurie tried was some internet searches. She had no luck with that as the recipes didn’t achieve the flavor she was looking for.

Laurie said, “So then I got thinking that those small kioskos in the malls must use ingredients which keep and are easy to deliver and are simple to make. So I knew it couldn’t be fresh milk.”  Laurie knew she had to start with strong coffee flavor as the coffee shops had that in abudance. It didn’t take her long to come up with the most delicious frappuccinos.

Her recipe:

Brew fresh coffee or use instant. If you use instant be sure it is an instant made for the Puerto Rican market (most cities have Nestle Puerto Rican style or get someone in Puerto Rico to mail you a couple jars). The Puerto Rican instant coffee is so much better that it makes all the difference. It can even be decaf with very little difference in the flavor. Use 3 3/4 cups cold water and about six slightly heaping teaspoons of Puerto Rico freeze dried instant coffee (or the same amount of chilled fresh-brewed espresso, double strength). Then add one can of sweetened condensed milk. This is the secret ingredient. Put plenty of ice in the blender, pour in some of your liquid and frappe away.

This summer we have been enjoying a tall glass almost every afternoon.